spotlight
You Can Only Control What You Can Control
scott white
by Rob Goldman
above: untitled, spray paint, acrylic and marker on wood
below: Forever Sad Boy, spray paint, acrylic, marker, and charcoal on wood
The fi ve minutes spent waiting outside of Ethos for Scott White’s ar-
rival felt much longer in the Florida summer heat. We met to walk
around inside and see his work on the walls, but we had to navigate
around people eating, so conditions weren’t ideal for an interview.
The whole place shows local artists, and White’s work dominates a
good chunk of the wall space. We had a brief tour of the artwork,
then decided to go to Rise Above. The shop had customers, and the
back room was occupied, so we fi nally went across street to Lil Indies,
which is always a nice place for conversation.
White is a professional tattoo artist, painter, and
musician. You can see his work on the fl esh of
many happy Orlandoans, or on Instagram @
largeteeth. Starting off, I had to ask, “Why lar-
geteeth?” Everything else was taken; he and
three friends brainstormed to get an easy-to-re-
member, open-ended name. Essentially, it’s
just White now, but it was initially meant to
be a collaborative project. He elaborated on his
passion for collaborative work: he thrives on
the satisfaction of completing someone else’s
work, and also the same satisfaction in seeing
how another person interprets his unfi nished
works.
Rise Above is located in the Mills50 district of
Orlando. I asked White about his favorite spot,
and he said it’s the whole district. “It’s got its
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own identity at this point, no longer the street that connects areas.”
He has no particular “hangout” place to go as he doesn’t drink much,
and has an eight-year-old daughter he spends a lot of time with.
White’s work is reminiscent of street art, but he hasn’t done any walls
since 1994 or ’95. Despite this, that infl uence and love has carried
through to his work in recent years. He also really enjoys folk art, so
his work tends to look like a stylistically layered mash-up. Back in the
mid-’90s in Apopka, there was a budding street art scene but a police
crackdown on graffi ti resulted in some people serv-
ing jail time. That was an easy segue into working
in and hanging around tattoo shops. Coincidentally,
a graffi ti artist from the music scene was the one
to introduce him to the opportunity to meet tattoo
artists.
Between making a point, asking a question, and
talking about himself, White said that he would
rather not think about what the piece is meant to
do from the get-go and just go for it. Typically he
starts with no idea or basis. “At this point, I’m all
about just being positive. Hopefully it makes people
happy. It makes me happy. That’s what I want to
share.”
Most pieces are in the works for a couple years.
Scott goes through phases. He’ll only have the en-
ergy to focus on tattoo work, then occasionally, his
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